Conventional driving assistance apparatuses have been proposed that acquire road information from map data stored in a navigation apparatus, or acquire various types of information with respect to traveling a vehicle such as the current position of the vehicle detected by means of a GPS or the like, so as to give a notice to the driver, so as to assist the driver to drive the vehicle, and so as to intervene in the driving of the vehicle, thereby preventing traffic accidents.
Examples of such driving assistance apparatuses include an apparatus which includes an image acquisition section such as a camera or the like on the front side of the vehicle in order to provide necessary notices and to perform control for the vehicle at a more precise timing. With such an arrangement, a notice is given to the driver and the vehicle is controlled based upon the images thus acquired. For example, a vehicle driving assistance apparatus is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-86363 (pp. 8 to 10, FIG. 4), which detects a brief stop line formed on the road on which the vehicle is traveling, based upon image data acquired by means of a CCD camera mounted such that it faces forward of the vehicle, and which provides driving assistance in the vicinity of intersections based upon the detection results.